I am a democrat, because I basically believe in the traditional tenets of that party, more or less, but more so than less so. I would basically describe myself as being a liberal on about eighty percent of the issues, a conservative on probably a mere twenty percent of them. But more and more I'm starting to realize my party is undergoing a severe meltdown from within. And I blame it on the special interests that have infected the party, by infesting the party, and turning it into little more than a trojan horse for a radicalized, mestastisized version of honorable liberalism that can only be described as far left, extremist to the nth degree, in a great many cases. In other cases, they are not so much far left as they are mere careerists, people who have become so embedded that they are an entitlement in their own right, or think that they are.
And then there are the totally, uncomprehendingly silly. Such an example of this would be PETA (people for the ethical treatment of animals). The first time I heard of this group was a long time ago, by way of commercials in which their spokesman of the time, Mike Farrell (B.J. Hunnicutt of televisions M.A.S.H. fame). They sounded extremist to me then, but I had no idea at the time how goofy this bunch actually was.
I love animals as much, and to tell you the truth I would imagine more, than the average person, more so than even the average animal lover. But this is an example of a group that does a potentially worthy cause a grave disservice. It's easy to laugh at the antics of these people, and to not take them seriously, but then you realize, these people are actualy sitting around in board rooms and being paid to come up with this goofy shit. And they have obviously recently scrapped the bottom of the barrel, having way too much time on their hands, and possibly, when you get right down to it, have too much money in their coffers. Where is it coming from? From the usual suspects of course, and seeing as thy are a non-profit agency, tey have to spend it all in a given amount of time, as they aren't allowed to make a profit.
Now this is where a certain little town in New Yoprk State comes in, a little town by the name of Fishkill. Yes, that's right, Fishkill New York. Bear in mind that New York, back in the early days of it's origins, was not an English, but a Dutch colony. Therefore, a great many of the place names in New York State are, as you might expect, of Dutch extraction. Fishkill is an ov\bvious example. It was probably originally Fishkyll, or some such like that, and was later Anglicized, not so much purposely as due to a naturl linquistic evolutionary process. Whatever the case, the name oiginally meant "Fish Stream".
But the good people of the board of PETA are now on record as having embarked on a campaign to urge the city council of the town to change it's name to somehting that is more "fish friendly". As soon as I heard this, I thought to myself, are they kidding? They aren't really serious, are they? Could they really be that idiotic, that stupid? To be honest with you, I keep thinking that maybe after all it will turn out ot be a good natured jibe, just a way to exhibit a sense of humor, to show people they are capable of self-effaccing humor, that they know they have a reputation as being a bunch of extremist nuts, why not embark on a good little good natured fun at their own expense. But I kind of doubt it.
They suggested as a replacement for the name of Fishkill, the name of a web-site which they are affiliated with, I think it is called, if I heard correctly, "Fishfriends.org". Yes, I know I should have googled it before hand so I would know for sure, but I'm kind of afraid to. Who knows what kind of viruses you can be infected with these days, and besides, I just had one hell of an idea. Failing the proposition of keeping the name of the city the way it is-my preferrence-wy not simply change it to it's English translation, "Fishstream". But of course, most fishstreams these days are quite polluted.
